英语四级听力-短对话 288

 Section B

Passage One

26.

A. About 4,000 years ago.

B. About 3,000 years ago.

C. About 2,000 years ago.

D. About 1,000 years ago.

27.

A. The small bowl was put above the large bowl.

B. The large bowl was put above the small bowl.

C. The small bowl was put inside the large bowl.

D. The large bowl consisted of two equal parts.

28.

A. Horsemen.

B. Brass¹ doors.

C. Drops of water.

D. Metal balls.

Section B

Passage One

The water clock was an ancient clock. It could be used on cloudy days, at night, and indoors². Such clocks were probably first used in Egypt [26]about 2,000 B.C. They were also used for many years in Arabia, India, China, and all of Europe.

The simplest water clock needed just two parts-a small bowl and a large bowl. The small bowl had a tiny hole in the bottom; the large bowl was divided into equal parts, and marked by lines. [27]Water was poured into the small bowl, and it fell slowly down into the large bowl in tiny drops. Usually it took an hour for the water to rise from one line to the next in the large bowl.

A beautiful water clock was made in Persia over a thousand years ago. It was presented as a gift to the Emperor of France. This water clock could be heard as well as seen. The dial of the clock was made up of twelve doors, each representing³ an hour. [28]Every hour a door opened, and the proper number of metal balls dropped onto a thin brass plate to strike the hour. At twelve o'clock, twelve tiny horsemen came out and shut all the doors. This was probably one of the first striking⁴ clocks.

Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.

26. When was the first water clock probably made?

正确答案：A

解析：录音只提到一个年代，即“2,000 B.C.”，听到这个数字即可选出正确答案A（距今约4000年）。选项C（2000年以前）故意漏掉B.C.；而选项B（3000年以前）和D（1000年以前）是和文章完全不相关的数字，可排除。

27. What do we know about the structure⁵ of the simplest water clock?

正确答案：A

解析：短文提到，“把水倒进小碗，水就慢慢地滴落进大碗”，由此可推断出选项A（小碗在大碗的上方）正确。

28. What did the striking water clock use to strike hours?

正确答案：D

解析：原文提到，“每桶一个小时就打开一扇门，适当的金属球数落入一个薄黄铜盘报时”，可知正确选项是D（金属球）。

1 brass   

n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器

参考例句：

• Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。

2 indoors   

adv.(在)室内，(在)户内

参考例句：

• Because of the coldness of the weather we stayed indoors.我们因天气寒冷呆在家里。
• It is very cold outside,you'd better come indoors across the board.外面很冷，你们所有人最好都进屋。

3 representing   

v.表现( represent的现在分词 )；代表；体现；作为…的代表

参考例句：

• a diagram representing a cross section of the human eye 表现人眼的剖面图
• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。

4 striking   

adj.显著的，惹人注目的，容貌出众的

参考例句：

• There is a striking difference between Jane and Mary.简和玛丽之间有显著的差异。
• What is immediately striking is how resourceful the children are.最令人注目的是孩子们的机智聪明。

5 structure   

n.结构，构造，建筑物；v.构成；

参考例句：

• Doctors study the structure of the human body.医生研究人体构造。
• A flower has quite a complicated structure.一朵花的结构相当复杂。